Accidents
by Ah Hael
Summary: Wufei and Heero are killed in an accident and are brought back to life with some minor complications. 25, 13, 14 Warnings: Gender switching
1. Default Chapter

Okay, I know it may seem like I'm determined to make a 5x2x5 of every possible genre, but trust me, that's just how they keep coming to me. This one came to me in a dream, and despite my best efforts, it kept insisting to be written.

Title: Accidents

Author: Ah Hael

Rating: PG

Pairings: 2x5, 1x3, 1x4

Summary: Wufei and Heero are killed in an accident and are brought back to life with some minor complications.

Warnings: Gender switching, lots of sap with heavy doses of fluff.

Archives: On my bio page

Disclaimer: The following story is based on the TV show Gundam Wing, which I do not own, so I don't get a dime for my efforts.

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Accidents 

I don't remember much about the accident. I remember looking at Heero in confirmation that the last of the civilians had been evacuated from the damaged station, and then it was as if all my senses were overwhelmed. Blinding light, a deafening roar, and searing pain. For about a millisecond before everything went black, I swear I could even smell my own flesh burning.

And then, there was nothing. No light. No sound. Nothing. And I knew I was dead.

Then, my interfering friends had to go and save me. Damn them.

Awareness drifted back to me slowly. My aforementioned overwhelmed senses began feeding me strange, disjointed information that blended with my nightmares, making them even worse.

It got to the point where the only sense I trusted anymore was sound. A beautiful, sweet rumbling hum that seemed to drone on in the back of my awareness. Soothing me, nurturing me, enveloping my very being, and chasing away the nightmares that threatened to drive me mad.

Eventually, the sound started to evolve into something a little more tangible. I could make out voices, but my mind wasn't ready to process who they were, or what they were saying. The one time I tried to open my eyes before my mind was ready, I was rewarded for my efforts with a painful assault on my optic nerves.

The first sound I was able to fully recognize was my name.

"Wufei? Wufei can you hear me? Squeeze my hand again if you can hear me." I knew that voice. I searched my mind for the owner of that voice. _Sally_. It was Sally talking, and she wanted me to squeeze her hand.

Where the hell was my hand? I felt a brief moment of panic when I thought I'd lost my hands, but then logic came back. How could I do as she asked without them? It was hard to focus my concentration and find my hands enough to flex them. As least, I think I did. I got a lot of positive sounds for whatever it was I did.

I tried to open my eyes again. This time, the light wasn't so painful, and I could make out hazy moving shapes that had to be the people around me. Exhausted by my efforts, I faded out after that.

That same sequence of events repeated itself several more times before I could do anything more.

"Wufei? How are you doing today?" Sally asked me. She'd been coming in to check up on me every day, and Duo, Trowa, Quatre or all three were with her when she did. Today, it was Duo.

"Sorrr thoat," I croaked. Was that weak sound my voice? I had tried to speak a few times before, but this was the first time I managed to coordinate my mouth enough to get words. At least this time, it almost sounded like what I meant to say.

Her eyes flew to mine with a delighted smile. "Your throat is sore?" I nodded. "Duo, can you get him a cup of water and a straw?"

I heard my friend exit the room at top speed. While he was away, Sally tried to coax me in to talking again with questions about my physical state. It was still inexplicably difficult for me to manage more than an affirmative or negative sound.

Duo reappeared and put his hand on my shoulder. "Hey, Wufei, try to drink some of this," he said, holding the straw to my mouth.

The cool water felt like paradise on my tongue and throat. Now, maybe I could finally get the answers to the questions that had been running through my mind since I'd begun to wake up.

I wanted to ask what happened. All I managed was "Wh… hap…nd?"

Duo gave me a look filled with surprise and concern. "I should have known you'd ask that," he grumbled. He looked back at me with one of his most artificial smiles pasted on his face. "Look, 'Fei, there will be plenty of time to talk about what happened later. You should rest right now," he answered, doing his best to sidestep the question.

Considering I just recently woken up in an obviously incapacitated state, I figured it was a fair question. His avoidance sent all kinds of alarms off in my head. He might as well have said 'I'm hiding something from you, and you're not going to like it'. I gave him the best glare I could manage under the circumstances.

"…mplosin?" Ugh. I meant to say 'did an explosion put me here?' Now, I'm reduced to talking like a toddler. Should I have been amused that Duo could understand me?

"Oh, you remember the explosion, do you?"

I gave him a nod. It was all I could manage. He looked at Sally. "Hey, Sally, maybe you should get the others in here." He looked back at me cautiously, and I instinctually braced myself.

"You and Heero were evacuating some scientists and their families from an observation satellite that had been damaged, do you remember that? Shortly after you'd done that, there was and explosion and the both of you were caught in the blast."

Well, that much I had already guessed myself. Now, to the parts I really wanted to know. "Heeerrrohh?" He smiled at me.

"He's alive. He was badly hurt, but alive."

What about me? How badly was I hurt? Is the reason I can't speak or move properly is because I've been so badly damaged? I had to focus very hard to speak "Status?" Yay me. I said a whole word. How humiliating.

Duo's expression changed from concerned to stubborn, and I was afraid he wasn't going to tell me what had happened to me. At that moment, Sally came back with Quatre and Trowa. The blond pilot beamed at me.

"Wufei! It's so good to see you awake!" He grabbed my hand warmly.

Trowa came up behind him. His smile wasn't as blinding as Quatre's, but no less warm. What ever had happened to me, it was easy to tell my friends were glad to have me alive. "Hello, Wufei. You called us, Duo?" the taller man asked, turning his attention away from me and onto the man sitting beside me.

"Yeah. We finally get him awake for more than ten minutes, and already he's being stubborn. He wants to know what happened."

"He's talking already?" Quatre asked. I wasn't quite sure what to make of the tone in his voice. He seemed surprised, but almost disappointed. By the looks of them, both he and Trowa were perplexed by this turn of events.

"Yeah, and already he's demanding answers."

Their talking over me like I wasn't there started to rake on my nerves. "Status?" I said, quite firmly. Either they answered the question or got the hell out of my room. I was not going to lay there and be treated like a coffee table.

"See?" Duo said, before looking at me a little regretfully. "Okay, you remember the explosion. At the time, the both of you were wearing standard headgear and body armour, which protected your heads and most of your internal organs. Without it, you never would have survived." He broke off with a choked sound. I was touched again to know that they were happy I was alive.

But, I was also hearing what he wasn't telling me. Whatever was not covered with protective gear was badly damaged or destroyed. That meant both my arms and anything below my waist. I couldn't stop the knee jerk panic reaction. I tried to sit up and look at what was left of my body, but my muscles wouldn't cooperate any better than my mouth had. Instead, I just thrashed wildly, getting myself nowhere.

Immediately, hands were all over me, trying to calm me.

"Hey! Hey! Take it easy. It's there. It's all there," Duo said to me soothingly. He must have understood what I was trying to do, but now I was confused. How could it all be there when it was destroyed? Duo tilted me up to survey my body, allowing me to lean on him for support. I was covered by blankets, but there were indeed two arms and two legs there.

Quatre took up the explanation. "You weren't expected to live, but we'd had a stroke of luck. Two of the people you evacuated were a mother and daughter that were injured previously and were going to be sent to the L3 regeneration facility."

Ah. Regeneration. One of the few good points about war was the medical breakthroughs. Nanite technology fused with cloning technology to help people repair and re-grow lost or damaged limbs. But, the process was still in its infancy stage. To date, I had only heard of it being used on people who had only lost one limb, not all four.

"Worrrkd?" Oh, damn. I was wearing out just as I was started to get answers. Sally answered.

"Yes, it worked. We had to re-grow all new arms and legs for you, as well as some other tissue, including nerves and skin. That's why it's so hard for you to move right now. Most of your body is new, and you have to re-learn how to use it."

That made sense. I would have left it at that, but there was something in their collective faces that made me sure they were still hiding something. I tried to say so, but I was already fading. "Hyyyyyydnnnnnnn."

"Shhh, 'Fei. Rest now. We'll talk later," Duo said, still holding me. By the time he'd laid me back down, I was out.

I have no idea if it was hours or days before I was awake enough again to confront them. They were all wearing different clothes so it stood to reason it had at least been a day.

At first, I woke up alone in the room. I surveyed my surroundings. It was clearly not a hospital room, regardless of the equipment present. It had modified Winner guestroom written all over it.

Now, to assess what was really concerning me. Pushing my concentration to the limits, I moved my hand enough to get it to rest on my thigh. Yes, the leg was there. It felt tingly and very sensitive. I guess it must have been a side effect of regeneration. I got my hand to twitch its way up to my belly to test the skin there, but a new more alarming thought blotted out all others.

WHERE THE HELL WAS MY DICK? My hand should have passed it in the way up, but I was certain didn't feel anything.

Yes, women may laugh, but we men are rather fond of our genitals, and take their loss rather badly. In fact, the loss of both arms and legs didn't affect me nearly as much as the loss of this appendage.

I was completely unaware of how my panic was registering on the machines monitoring me. Duo came speeding in, followed closely by Trowa and Sally. Duo put his hand on me once again and started muttering soothing words to calm me. As if I could be calm at a time like this.

"Gone!" I said, alarmed. At first, they all seemed confused as to what was gone, until they all took note of where my hand was and gave each other rather significant looks. What did that mean? They were willing to re-grow my legs but overlooked my manhood? What kind of friends were they?

"Shhh. It's not gone. It's… First, I want to say _this can be fixed,_ okay? We just need to wait until the rest of you gets better," Duo said. I nodded, letting him know they had my full attention and I was trying very hard to remain calm. Sally sat down at the edge of my bed and started what I hoped would be a damn good reason as to why a rather significant portion of my anatomy was missing.

"Wufei, I don't know how much you know about regeneration technology, but essentially it works like this: nanites assess damaged areas, and then use cloning technology to repair and re-grow the damaged tissue. The problem is the amount of damaged you sustained. It uncovered a flaw in the system," Sally said quietly.

A flaw in the system. This didn't inspire my confidence, but I let her continue. "Since it involves cloning, damage has to be assessed at the genetic level. There is a central system that controls and monitors regeneration. The same system that was monitoring you and Heero was also monitoring the mother and daughter you rescued."

"It mistakenly read your 'y' chromosome as damage and corrected with extrapolations from the mother and daughter's 'x' chromosome. It… It remade you into a woman," she finished quickly.

They all had matching expressions of guilt and nervousness although I don't know why they were all so nervous. I was too weak to extract revenge yet. No, my revenge would have to wait until later. Yes, my-rip-them-all-apart-and-put-them-back-together-wrong revenge would have to wait. In the meantime, I passed out again from the strain I'd put myself under.

To say I was not the best company in the following weeks would be an understatement. Not that you could blame me. It seemed like each day tore another strip from my pride, and it took some time to fully realize the extent of my humiliation. The only thing that kept me from going mad was Duo and Sally's reassurance that this could be reversed.

I needed someone to feed me, bathe me, and take me to the bathroom. With my new nerves, I even had to _re-learn_ how to go to the bathroom. I'd even suffered the embarrassment of having a few "accidents" in that area. Did you know that bladder control is far more difficult for a woman?

The cherry on top of it all was that Duo was almost always present for each dent in my dignity. He was there in the morning when I woke up to feed me breakfast, to help me exercise my limbs during the day, and even to read to me at night.

His never ending patience and calm demeanor irritated me. He and I didn't do patience and calm. We had battles of cunning and wit. This somber version of Duo felt too much like pity. Perhaps that was what inspired my juvenile behavior.

"Don't you have anything better to do than watch me make a fool of myself?" I yelled at him. I smacked the bowl of soup he was feeding me, effectively dumping it all over my braided nursemaid and the floor. Instead of one of our legendary arguments, he just quietly left the room, returning a few minutes later with clean clothes, a mop, and a bucket. I watched in fascination and disappointment while he silently cleaned up the mess, never once complaining.

Duo always complains. He's a virtually a professional complainer, so maybe you can get a small idea of how out of character he was acting.

It wasn't until he was done cleaning up the mess I'd made that he said anything, and it wasn't to me. He looked up at me, his eyes became extremely round, and then he leapt to the house phone and screamed for Sally to get her butt into my room.

Okay, I'd been killed, brought back from the dead, and remade into a woman. It is safe to say I've been through a great deal. When Duo screamed like that, my first thought was 'what now?', and I couldn't stop myself from looking down at my body.

I was covered in blood.

Sally barged in, saw the blood, and demanded to know what happened.

"I dunno!" Duo answered in a semi-hysterical tone. "I just looked up, and there was all of this blood!" He proceeded to dance around behind her while she pulled back my covers and examined me for a few seconds.

"Duo, you can relax. This is normal."

"Normal? How can this be normal?" Duo demanded. His voice was pitched way too high.

Yes, I wondered how this can be normal. People just don't start bleeding.

"It's normal for women to have menstrual cycles," she stated plainly.

What? I'm what? "I'm what?" I squeaked in a very unmanly fashion. No. Kill me now. Anything but that. This was not happening.

Duo, the coward, quickly fled the room. Typical man, running away at the first sign of anything that relates to feminine hygiene.

I had to put my foot down. "No. I refuse. I am not having menstrual cycles. Take everything out if you must, but I am not doing this," I stated firmly.

"Oh, stop being such a baby. I've been going through this every month since I was thirteen. I even fought a war like this, so you'll forgive me if I don't think you can't handle a few months of it," she said waspishly. Over the past few weeks, her gentle concern had waned a little. According to her, I was being unreasonable. Yeah, right. Let's see how well she would come back from the dead with a new gender.

Duo came back in carrying a bag full of stuff. "Hey! Hilde packed this emergency kit just in case this happened."

Now Hilde knows that I'm a woman with menstrual cycle? I looked over at the table and seriously considered stabbing myself to death with my forgotten soupspoon.

Curious, Sally peeked into the bag and inspected its contents. After a moment, she made an approved sound. "Good idea, although I wouldn't recommend these for Wufei just yet. I'd rather he start off with pads until he gets the hang of it." I could literally feel the blood drain from my face as she extracted a box of tampons.

Notice how they still call me "he"? At least, they were all smart enough to avoid ever referring to me as "she".

Duo went over to the ensuite bathroom and prepared what ever it was he was preparing for me while Sally gave me a quick and very embarrassing refresher course in the human reproductive system from the female perspective. She was just finishing when another thought hit me.

"Sally, can I get pregnant?" Don't ask me why I asked that. It's not as if I was ever going to allow it to happen, but for some obscure reason, I blurted out the question. Damn my insatiable curiosity.

"I'm not sure. Although your uterus looks like it works perfectly fine, it doesn't look like your ovaries are producing viable eggs. I doubt you could get pregnant without medical help."

I have a uterus and ovaries? EW! EW! EW! Regardless of my body, my mind was still male and was revolted at having those foreign organs inside me. Duo kept my mouth from spouting any more stupid questions by bundling me up in my blood soaked sheets and carting me off into the bathroom.

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Part 2 is already written, just needs to be betaed


	2. Chapter 2

A zillion thanks to Mako-chan for being my ever patient beta.

**Accidents - Part2**

The large tub was full of scented bubbles. "A bubble bath? I'm not getting in a bubble bath." I scoffed. I was feeling a keen need to reassert my masculinity, and a perfumed tub full of foam wasn't going to do it.

My protests went unheard. Why wouldn't anyone listen to me now that I was a woman? Instead, he had Sally help strip me and dump me in the sudsy water.

However, I will freely admit that the bath wasn't Maxwell's worst idea. First, because I hadn't had anything better than a sponge bath since waking up. I was starting to feel disgusting. Second, the blood was making me feel doubly filthy. And third, the heat seeping into my cramping muscles felt very nice.

I was also glad for the bubbles because it hid my new female body from Duo's view. He had been trying to show a small amount of decency by trying to avert his eyes, but I still needed his help bathing. I couldn't lift my arms for more than a few seconds, and the tub was rigged with a harness to hold me up. Well, if he was going to stay, he was going to work.

"Maxwell?"

"Yes?"

"Would you be so kind as to help me wash my hair?"

Yes, I still had my hair. The protective helmet saved most of it, and it had grown while I was regenerating.

"I think I can handle that."

The feeling of strong fingers massaging my head and cleansing the greasy mess my hair had become was hypnotic. I started talking to keep from falling asleep. "Where are Quatre and Trowa?" I murmured. It'd been a while since either one had visited me.

"Helping Heero," he answered.

"Heero?" I asked, puzzled. My eyelids were getting very heavy.

"What? Forgot that you aren't the only one who's come back from the land of dead in a woman's body?" he asked, amused.

Actually, I had. Occasionally, I would ask how he was doing, but somehow I still kept thinking he was a man since that was how I last saw him.

"How is he?" I asked sleepily.

"She."

"What?" My eyes drifted closed while he used the shower wand to rinse out the shampoo.

"She. Heero has decided to stay a woman."

"He what?" I jerked in my harness and ended up getting a face full of water. That woke me up. Duo used a cloth to wipe off my face.

"Heero has come to the conclusion that his new body provides a perfect opportunity to start a new life."

"I always suspected his sanity," I muttered. He had to be crazy to consider being a woman an opportunity. Duo must have felt differently because his hands stopped massaging in the conditioner. He sighed.

"Look, Wufei. It's always been difficult for him to forget what he was during the war. It's hard for him not to see an assassin that could bend steel with his bare hands whenever he looked in the mirror. Now, he sees a woman –and a very attractive woman I might add- that can barely bend a willow branch."

He just had to add that bit about Heero being attractive, didn't he? I had the urge to grind my teeth together. "Maxwell, kindly never mention to me how attractive a woman Heero makes EVER again."

He chuckled. "You're just jealous," he joked as he resumed massaging my scalp.

I rolled my eyes. "Oh, yes, I'm so disappointed I'm not as pretty as Heero." The fingers stalled for a moment and started back up a little more vigorously than before. About ten seconds later, they stopped again.

"I… uh… I'll just get Sally to help you finish up." And he fled the bathroom. I supposed it was just as well. The bubbles were disappearing.

It was a few weeks later when I got to see the new and improved Heero. Duo was pushing me around Quatre's estate grounds when we ran into Heero being wheeled around be Trowa.

Ugh, Duo was right. There was a lightness to Heero I'd never seen before. He looked – correction, _she_ looked almost radiant. After everything else that had happened to me over the past month or so, the sight of lovely, happy, cheerful Yuy barley fazed me.

She-Heero smiled warmly at me. "Duo! Wufei!" she called out. "Wufei, it's good to see you're feeling better. I was starting to worry about your recovery."

Perhaps I was a little fazed. Damn creeped out, actually.

"Sorry to concern you, Yuy," I answered neutrally. I always knew where I stood with the old Heero. This new one left me a little off kilter. She looked up at Trowa.

"Trowa, do you mind if I talk to Wufei for a few minutes alone?" she asked him. He smiled at her and moved her wheelchair next to mine. Something about Barton's behavior set alarms off in my head.

Duo gently touched my shoulder. "I'm gonna go get something to drink. You want anything?" He left me to have "girl talk" with Yuy after taking my request for some juice.

I sat there for a few uncomfortable minutes, not knowing what to do or say. The girl that was once my friend and comrade looked at me and sighed.

Right before my eyes she transformed herself into a shadow of the man she once was. "You disapprove," she said. The dead, nasal neutrality that characterized Heero Yuy had returned to her voice, if at a higher pitch than before.

"I'm trying to understand your choice." Did my own voice change that much?

"I figured you of all people would understand. Remember when we fought and you asked me if I felt alive when fighting? Well, you were right. I was made for fighting and I was only alive when fighting, even though I no longer wanted to. How does a weapon stop being a weapon? I was never supposed to live through the war, but as the war progressed, there was a small part of myself wanting to live through it and see the world past it. I lived through it, but then I found a part of me that was having trouble living with peace."

"When I first woke up, I was angry. Angry to find I was still alive. I wanted to die in that explosion. I wanted the assassin codenamed Heero Yuy dead and buried. I had woken up several days before you, but I was so angry at being alive I refused to aid in my own recovery. I had no idea I'd been changed, and everyone assumed my lack of response was normal for what I'd been through. But then, you woke up and surprised everyone by demanding answers right away. Becoming female has given me the chance to be someone other than who I was trained to be."

She held up her new, slim, callus-free hands. "These hands have never had blood on them and never held a weapon. I can do things with these hands that I would never have attempted before."

I stared at her, stunned. I'd never heard Heero speak so much and I never expected him… ugh… _her_ to have such a philosophical outlook on life. "You don't find being a woman uncomfortable?" Especially that whole menstrual thing.

She smiled. "Only how to act. I keep having to ask myself what Relena would do in a situation and try to emulate that. Like when I just saw you, for instance. I know the old me would have stayed silent and waited for you to say something first. Even then, I probably would have stayed silent and only would have nodded in recognition. This time, I initiated the conversation." Her tone suggested she was quite proud of herself for that.

"Are you certain you are happy?" If she was, who was I to judge what made her so? She nodded, another shy smile playing on her lips. "Then I'm happy for you, although I'm not certain Relena is the best role model for you. She's a little too perky for you. Perhaps Sally, or better yet, Noin. They are a little more sedate and closer to your temperament. That way there's less chance of you having a meltdown." I had to laugh at the face she made. I was forced to admit there was a definite charm about her. No wonder Trowa was doting on her.

A few minutes later, I found out Trowa wasn't the only one doting on her.

"There you are!" I heard Quatre say brightly from behind me. He walked up between us and squatted down next to my companion. It was almost an afterthought that he noticed me. "Wufei! It's good to see you out. Where's Duo?" he said cheerfully.

"He and Trowa left us to talk for a bit. He mentioned getting something to drink." I couldn't help but notice the flicker of irritation on his features when I mentioned the Heavyarms pilot.

"I see." He gave Heero a mischief filled smile. "I smuggled you in some contraband." He pulled a couple of candy bars out of his pocket and passed them to a very pleased looking Heero.

This was almost too painful to watch. Two of my friends were becoming enamored with a third because he had become a she. There was no way this could work out well. I was secretly trying to send telepathic signals to Duo to haul his braid back here and save me.

He must have somehow heard me, because he returned with my juice a few minutes later. And of course, he returned with Trowa. The tension between the two best friends was palpable. Trowa spied the candy bars and gave Quatre a pointed look.

"Quatre, Iria said Heero wasn't ready for rich foods. You want to make her sick?"

"She can save them for when she is ready," the blond retorted.

I'd have been amused if the whole situation didn't feel so awkward. I sent a glare to Duo that begged him to get me out of there immediately. He had no trouble getting the message.

"Okay!" Duo interrupted the tableau with forced cheerfulness. "I think Wufei has had enough fresh, recycled colony air for one day!" And we wheeled away as fast as we could while still looking polite.

"How long has that been going on?" I asked him. It was unnecessary to ask which 'that' I was referring to.

"Almost from the moment the two of you emerged from the regeneration tanks. I guess there's just something about her that appeals to Gundam pilots."

Didn't I already tell him not to mention to me what kind of woman she was? Unbelievable! She didn't have enough men fawning all over her? No, I'd reached my limit. If I had to sit there and watch Duo get all starry eyed over Heero, someone was going to get hurt. Maybe it was the glare I gave him or the white knuckled grip in the armrests of my chair, but the long haired man wisely chose not to mention Heero again for the rest of the week.

Jealous? What do you mean jealous? To be jealous would imply that I was even remotely interested in one of them, and that I was preposterous. I just didn't want to listen to my primary care giver endlessly spewing about how wonderful Heero was. Besides, we had far better topics to discuss. Topics like poetry, philosophy, and literature.

Got you with that one, didn't I? Since when does Duo talk about literature? Apparently, since the explosion.

In order to help out, Duo had quit his job at the scrap yard. He decided to use the time off to go back to school and become an engineer. With very little formal education, he had to take equivalency tests and challenge entrance exams. Sciences and math came as naturally to him as breathing, but he had no patience for the finer fields of learning. I offered to share my knowledge with him to help him.

"This is so stupid!" he yelled, throwing down the book he was reading.

"What is?" I looked up from my leg lifts, puzzled. I had reached the stage where I could stand freely for a few minutes, but walking still eluded me.

"Shakespeare! I have no idea how this crap has been revered for so many centuries."

I could only splutter in shock. Although Shakespeare wasn't a favorite of mine, I would never have called it crap. "Shakespeare used timeless themes that are just as pertinent now as when they were written. Which play are you reading?"

"Romeo and Juliet." He made a distasteful face. "Some great romance. If you ask me, it just sounds like two horny teenagers wanting to boink each other, and mummy and daddy don't approve."

"They are supposed to be deeply torn between the love they feel for each other and their duty to their family."

"Then, because they can't get their way, they off themselves. It's stupid. If the girl I wanted cared about me as well, I'd tell anyone who didn't like it to stick it where the sun don't shine."

"Ah, but that is my point! You understood that was what was happening even with the archaic language barrier. Do you see? The theme is still relevant even today." I could tell by Duo's face that I had won the argument, but he kept arguing for several more minutes out of principal.

We had some spectacular arguments over his school work. We could argue for hours over the meaning of a single line in a poem. It was great fun, almost like it was before my accident. One time, Quatre's sister, Iria, came storming in, yelling at Duo that I needed my rest. She was scared out of the room by twin scowls telling her to mind her own business.

Yes, I can admit without shame that I was very proud of him when he received top scores on his tests and gained entrance to an excellent school.


	3. Chapter 3

I must take a moment to thank Mako-chan for being such a spectacular beta.

Accidents - Part 3 

Somewhere out in the vastness of the universe there is a divine power guiding our movements for a grand purpose, and it hates me with a passion.

I think I've been pretty patient about everything so far, but these past few weeks have pushed me way past my limit.

It started when Miss Heero (oh so happy to be a woman) Yuy approached me while I was finishing some light katas. I had become strong enough to move about slowly, but I would tire out quickly.

"A party? What kind of party?" I asked, not that I was going to go. I had no desire to socialize in this form. As far as I was concerned, too many people knew about it already. Now Heero wanted to have a party so all of our friends that hadn't yet seen me could gawk? I'd rather have my spleen pulled up through my nose.

"It's almost been a year since our accident. I thought we should do something." She looked intently at me and seemed to read the thoughts in my head. "It will only be a small group of people who have all ready seen you as you are now."

_Oh, that makes it so much better,_ I thought acidly. "Yes, well, I guess Quatre and Trowa attending are a foregone conclusion," I muttered.

I wasn't sure what sort of agreement they had come to regarding their interest in Heero, but at least they were not hovering over her as much as they used to. It was starting to make me ill watching them.

She smiled shyly. "Yes, they've been very patient with me, giving me time to get used to them as suitors. For a while, I was hoping that Duo would show interest, but I guess he's interested in someone else."

Well, there was an image. Trowa and Quatre are falling all over themselves trying to court Heero, who was interested in Duo, who was interested in- Wait- Who was Duo interested in?

"Who?" Damn curiosity again. What did it matter who he was interested in? It was none of my business where he went when he left my company. Heero looked at me like I was being obtuse.

"I thought that was obvious from the way he acts around you. Always fetching things for you, reading to you at night 'til you fell asleep, spending all his free time with you…"

I gaped at her stupidly. Surely she was joking. It was laughable. Duo was not interested in me. He wouldn't dare. Duo knew full well how I felt about being a woman. There was no way he would be fool enough to…

He wouldn't, would he?

The more I thought about it, the less sure I was. I started looking at Maxwell's actions over the past few months with a new light.

When next I saw him, I had no idea how to act around him.

"Hiya, gorgeous!" He bounded into to my room. He'd called me that before. At the time, I thought he was just trying to get a rise out of me. Was he trying to tell me something?

"Maxwell, l I told you to quit calling me that." My retort was pretty half hearted, and he picked up my lack of enthusiasm.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

"I saw Heero today. She wants to have a party to commemorate the anniversary of the explosion."

"Cool. Guess Trowa and Quatre will be going." I winced inwardly as I heard the echo of my words coming from his mouth. Maybe we had been in each other's company for too long.

I needed to verify Heero's suspicions, but how could I discreetly ask if he was attracted to me? I decided to take the cowardly roundabout approach.

"I still don't understand what they see in her."

Duo shrugged awkwardly. "I don't suppose it's that hard to see. On one hand, you see someone who you respect, admire and trust. On the other, there's a beautiful, intelligent, strong woman who has just enough vulnerability to make a man want to take care of her." His voice started trailing off, and he looked away quickly, but not before I spied the blush he was trying to hide. The whole time he was talking, he was avoiding my gaze. Oh gods, he was attracted to me.

I wanted to be angry with him for having the audacity to see me as a woman, but I couldn't. Perhaps being a woman had slightly altered my perception of people's feelings. Instead, I hurt for him. He was a dear friend that had been nothing but kind and caring to me when I was hurting, and the one thing he'd like in return I couldn't give him.

I waited for him to finally look me in the eye, and it was painfully clear to both of us that we knew what we were truly talking about.

"Duo…" I began, but he held up a hand to stop me.

"Hey, don't worry about it. You know us Gundam pilots. We're tough. We can get through anything. It's probably just a harmless infatuation. It'll be gone in no time," he said with forced cheerfulness. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I should go see Heero about this party." He left the room, and I couldn't help but notice he never once openly admitted that it was _his_ feelings he was talking about. As if pretending it was someone else made it hurt less.

I hurt him. And I suffered from knowing it was I who hurt him.

When Duo didn't come back later that day, I cursed myself for being an idiot in several different languages. Couldn't I have just let him have his illusion for a little while longer? Would it have killed me to keep my mouth shut until I was changed back? Once I was a man again, he could have gotten over this _infatuation,_ as he called it, without losing face.

Somewhere, hiding deep inside was a squirming discomfort that occurred when I thought about getting over his attraction to me. I refused to acknowledge it at first because the sensation was most likely my vanity talking. But as the days passed, and Duo stayed away, they grew stronger.

Others visited me, but there was an underlying tenseness, and I knew what they were thinking. I needlessly hurt the one person who stuck by me through this entire ordeal.

At one point, Sally came to tell me I could probably go through my regeneration again in as little as four months.

Hooray. Yippee. Yay me. It wasn't the same without Duo to share the news. I missed him terribly. I was horrified when I finally realized that I was acting very much like a weak woman.

Stupid woman body! With its stupid woman organs, and stupid woman feelings! This would never have been a problem before my accident!

I began questioning all of my actions from then on. Constantly wondering if what I was doing would be what a man would do or a woman.

In an effort to retain hold of my former gender, I started clinging to activities that I had done before my accident. My morning exercises became like a religion to me. At least I was sure I would do them as a man. Duo still had yet to show himself.

One morning a few days before Heero's party, I felt the distinct sensation of being watched. At first, I was a little thrilled and excited, thinking Duo had returned, but then something felt wrong.

Carefully scanning the area while I moved, something caught my eye at the edge of the garden. Feigning exhaustion, I called Auda, who was my chaperone for the day, to help. I spoke very quietly when he came to help me.

"There is someone over by the wall watching us." _Watching me,_ I thought. He grimaced.

"Probably the press looking for a photo of master Quatre. The property has been plagued with them recently. Don't worry. We will deal with them."

I didn't want to sound vain, but I felt almost certain those eyes were watching me specifically. There was only one way to find out. "No. I have an idea."

Heero and I got into Sally's car, well in full view of our unwanted guest. She drove us to a local café, and we looked for all intents and purposes like three women having a lunch date, deliberately sitting outside on the "terrace" as much as you could have an outside terrace inside a colony.

We waited there like the bait that we were to see what sort of attention we drew.

A woman, who was not our waitress, popped up. "Hello! Connie Straight of The Colony Mind, are you Miss Chang Wufei?" she asked, pulling out a recording device.

She instantly had two strikes against her. One, for being a tabloid reporter, and two, for calling me "Miss". She must have taken my blank glare as an assent because she kept on going.

"I wanted to ask you a few questions about the recent transformation you underwent from man to woman."

Only years of training and experience being in mortal danger kept my table-mates and me in control of our reactions. Sally snorted, Heero looked amused, and I looked at her like she was a lunatic. She wasn't easily deterred.

"Is it true that you were Quatre Winner's male lover, and he paid for your transformation so you could produce the ever valuable male heir to the Winner line?"

Do you see what I mean about the universe hating me? I spend a few hours talking with the man outside this week, and now I'm accused of being his paramour.

This time it wasn't too hard for us to pretend to find amusement at her statement, although my laugh was a definitely forced.

"Ms. Straight, Quatre is indeed a friend of mine, and I can assure you he is quite heterosexual. However, even if he were not, anyone who knows him, knows he would never force someone he cared about to be something that they are not. Furthermore, we are not now, nor have we ever been, lovers. Now, go bottom feed somewhere else."

As statements go, I thought I'd made myself pretty clear. Unfortunately, she must have taken offense to the parting remark because she didn't leave.

I quickly looked over at Heero to see how she was reacting to this woman's line of questioning. After all, some of those questions had a small amount of relation to her. Her face was still carefully schooled for the reporter's benefit, but there was unhappiness in her eyes. I could tell she was uncomfortable with the questioning, and I could see Quatre's chances at ever being with her dwindle to nothing.

For my friends' misery alone, I could have smacked the woman in front of me senseless. But, she was a reporter for a sleazy tabloid. Anything I did or said could hurt my friends more.

The only way I could see to get her to leave would be to give her something else to feed on. If I told her I was indeed born a man and turned into a woman by accident, she would have her story, but my life would be over. Still, it might allow Quatre and Heero to have a chance.

I weighed the pros and cons of exposing my life to this shark when my knight in chestnut hair appeared.

"Hey, babe! Sorry I'm late!" Duo leaned in and kissed me. That's right. I said kissed me. I admit I was spaced out from the shock for a moment while his lips were pressed against mine. I was half dazed when I answered him.

"That's okay. You're not that late," I said, responding automatically to his cover story. Despite the fact that he was smiling warmly, his eyes were glittering with rage. If this reporter had any sense, she'd be running for her life.

"Great!" He smiled at me, and then looked up at the reporter. "Yes, I'll have a double bacon cheeseburger with fries and a vanilla milkshake. Oh, and can I get some gravy on the side?" he asked her, deliberately mistaking her for the waitress to knock her off balance.

And it worked. She looked at him, appearing a little less certain. He made it worse for her by giving her a 'well what are you waiting for go get my order' look.

"Honey, this is a reporter who thinks I'm Quatre's male lover." I nearly choked on the endearment. Such cutesy names are not my style, but the reporter didn't need to know that.

"Correction," Sally interrupted, "Quatre's male lover transformed into a woman." She added the last bit with an amused tone.

Duo started laughing. Amazing, no one can laugh like Duo can. He looked at me. "Well, you've certainly had a busy day. Does that mean I have to kick Quatre's ass when I see him?"

"I am not sleeping with Quatre!" I stated with mock ferocity.

"Good, 'cause I'd have really hated kicking his ass." He turned to the reporter with a less than friendly glare "Well, reporter, I think it's time for you to leave."

Well, apparently she did have some sense because she left after that. I suppressed the urge to throw myself at him for saving me.

Oh, crap, I really was turning into a woman.

"Don't worry. Trowa and I made sure the van she was working out of encountered a problem with the electrical equipment in it. And she's soon going to discover that recorder of hers has suffered the same fate."

He took us back to the house, back to a very worried Quatre and Trowa. The blond pilot looked very solemn after we filled them in. I could tell my earlier suspicions were correct. He was going to back away from Heero. If I had my way, that woman would never write again.

Duo avoided me once we left the café, and he left quickly after we got home. We all figured the press must have got their information from someone at the regeneration lab. That was the only way they could have ended up with such a distorted version of the truth. He and Trowa volunteered to go over and knock some answers out of them.

I retreated to my room to give Quatre and Heero time to talk. I was worn out anyway.

As I lay there staring at the ceiling, I tried to pretend it didn't bother me that Duo didn't want to talk to me, or that I didn't feel a little rush when I saw him today.

Gods, I was changing. I had to get out of this woman's body. It was having too much effect on me. Missing Duo, getting all starry eyed when he saved me and kissed me. Wanting him to notice me or talk to me. There must be something hardwired into their genetic code that makes them act this way.

The rational part of me reminded me that not all women acted that way. It was possible it may not be all my new body and genes. There were also well documented studies about patients developing abnormal emotional attachments to their caregivers. Maybe the two circumstances combined were affecting my judgment.

I kept trying to convince myself that he just caught me at a physically and mentally weak moment when I couldn't resist his charm, but I knew that wasn't right.

More than anything, I just wanted him to talk to me again. Whatever it took, I was almost willing to do it. This was probably what brought me to my next insanity.

I dressed like a woman for Heero's party.

I had to get Sally's help, but there I stood, wearing white silk pants and a red silk tunic. The top was close fitting and revealed, quite clearly to all present, that I was currently a woman.

I watched carefully for Duo's reaction. At first, he seemed surprised, but then he looked angry. He spent the rest of the time at the party ignoring me like I was a piece of furniture, and I spent it miserable.

I couldn't believe how low I'd sunk. I was so humiliated. I didn't even bat an eyelash when Une, Zechs or Noin showed up making light teasing comments about my current state. If anyone noticed or cared about my lack of response, they didn't say anything, leaving me to brood alone.

* * *

Wufei sat in the corner sulking. Not that he/she would have called it sulking. Children sulked. He may have been a woman, but he definitely was not a child.

He looked over at the person who occupied most of his thoughts, still confused about how he felt. He couldn't call it attracted even though Duo was indeed very attractive. Charmed? Or maybe Duo's word, infatuated?

He should really have been thankful of the time they spent away from each other. It gave him a chance to get his head on straight.

While he sulked, Duo was happily chatting with Heero. Every time he tried pulling his attention away, he found it being pulled back to them. When Duo embraced the new woman in a hug, Wufei stiffened. The seconds the two embraced ticked silently in his head. At five seconds, instead of letting go, Heero's arms went around Duo and returned the embrace, and she had that new smile of hers on her face.

The Chinese man-turned-woman fled the room before anyone could notice as a strange urge began pushing its way up his throat. He bolted into his room, collapsed on his bed, his eyes shut tight against the itching behind them. NO! He would not do this. He'd suffered enough female humiliations already. He would not cry!

_Stupid, stupid woman body! Stop it! _He yelled at himself mentally. He was mortified when a sob escaped his lips.

_No, please stop!_ He begged his infernally confused body, but another sob got through. A few more joined the first two, and before long, he was throes of a full fledged crying fit.

Pains that he had thought long since buried all fought to join with the emotional release. He cried for the loss of his wife and family, for killing Treize, for living through the war, but mostly for his pathetic feelings for Duo.

He didn't hear anyone come in, so it surprised him when he was picked up by strong arms and pulled onto a lap. He recognized the arms as the same gentle ones that had been taking care of him for the past several months.

"I hate being a woman! Being a woman sucks!" he wailed.

The arms rocking him paused a moment, surprised by his outburst. What did it matter what he said anymore? There was absolutely nothing left of his pride.

"I hate periods and cramps and growing breasts and mood swings! I hate being jealous or infatuated with my friends! I hate not recognizing myself in the mirror and being so weak… I just hate this." He wound himself down to a final sob before quieting.

"Hey, you're handling it better than I ever would."

From his position on Duo's lap, Wufei's ear was pressed tightly against his chest. The sound of his voice was coming in as a soothing rumble that worked wonders to calm him.

"Heero seems to be doing just fine," he grumbled sarcastically.

"Heero was virtually a blank slate with no existing personality to get in the way of his transformation. He could have come back as a chimp, and he'd have been fine. You're different; you already knew who you were."

Wufei felt him shrug. "If it were me, I'd still be stuck in a fetal position, mumbling gibberish."

That produced a small laugh. "My secret is to chant 'its only temporary' sixty times a day." He was enjoying the comforting rumble of Duo's voice in his ear, and it tickled something in the back of his mind.

"Duo?"

"Yeah?"

"Did you ever visit me before I woke up?"

There was a long pause "Yeah. Why?"

"Did you ever talk to me?"

A longer pause and a quieter, "Yeah. You kept have nightmares. Or what seemed to be nightmares, so I'd just read out loud to you. It helped calm you."

"I heard you." He remembered the rumbling hum that droned on and kept him from going insane. Perhaps his attachment started forming then. "So you and Heero?"

"Are friends. Sooooo, just who is it that your 'infatuated' with?" he asked with false lightness. Wufei winced. He was hoping Duo had missed that part of his rant.

"I'm not telling you," he said petulantly. Duo was looking incredibly amused and smug. It wasn't hard to figure out. Wufei would have killed anyone else that tried to hold him like this. "It's not funny! It's not uncommon for a patient to develop an attachment to the one taking care of them."

"Ohhhhh. Sooooo… that would be me?" he drawled. His tone was way too casual to be anything other than gloating. Wufei resisted the urge to punch him. He crossed his arms irritably under his breasts.

"I am not remaining a woman for you, Maxwell," he stated firmly. "If you like it so much, you be the woman."

"Nehooo way. Little Duo is staying right where he is." Wufei laughed at Duo's phallic nickname. But, he sobered quickly.

"Duo, what if this is only a passing thing brought on by unusual circumstances?"

Duo forced his chin up to look him in the eye. "Considering how I felt when I thought you were dead, and how hard it's been for me to stay away from you, I don't think that's much of an issue."

"I don't want to hurt you." What would happen if Wufei became a man again and lost interest in Duo?

"Well, I guess we'll have to go real slow then. Although I will admit you're damn hot as a woman, I would still be willing to see you as a man. And in case I forget, you looked very beautiful today."

It was difficult for Wufei to deny the hopeful look on Duo's face. "Well, seeing as you like me as a woman so much, I suppose I could let you kiss me one or two more times like this before I change back."

-Owari-


End file.
